Cummings said because of the size of the animal — less than 4 feet in length — the neighborhood’s homeowners association was given permission to hire a permitted nuisance wildlife trapper to remove the animal.

“We will work with the trapper to have it released in suitable habitat — below the fall line, roughly the line that connects Columbus-Macon-Augusta — and not near people,” she said.

Mary Foster, a Stonehaven Pointe resident and former homeowners association member, said she talked to multiple neighbors Wednesday who saw the gator — three are rumored to live there, but only one was caught.

“We’ve had several issues, fines from the county because of the retention ponds for not maintaining them,” she said. “I can't tell you how they got there, but they’ve been there for a while because there’s a mom, a dad and a baby.”

She said the pond is stagnant, which may be a reason the animals have taken up residence.

"Gators don’t do moving water. They like stagnant, swampy water," she said.

A call was dispatched to the Forsyth County 911 Center Wednesday just before 8:15 p.m. in connection with the gators, though the concern was for the multiple people reportedly throwing trash into the pond to lure the gator out, said Deputy Epifanio Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office.

The Sheriff’s Office animal control unit does not handle wildlife calls and defers them to the DNR, Rodriguez said.

This is not the first report of alligators being found in Georgia, with one being spotted in the Chattahoochee River earlier this year.